Concept to prototype in three days

January 15, 2007 With concept-to-showroom times being cut from years to months in recent times, one wonders just how quickly the development process can be carried out. One very ambitious and ultimately successful promotion at MacWorld Expo really pushed the envelope in this regard. Product development company mophie successfully turned the show floor of MacWorld ’07 into an open-source product development space where in less than four-days MacWorld attendees saw doodled concepts become actual prototypes. The mophie Illuminator generated over 100 concepts, and although the promise was to deliver one prototype, three of the concepts were deemed so good that three finished products were created during the show. And some nice ideas too …

The winning concepts were:

The Mueva Schlep (dreamt by Wm. Marc Salsberry)

The Schlep is a protective case with storage for your money and credit cards that attaches to any shoulder strap – from a backpack to a Gucci Hobo. Made of durable, ballistic cordura, the Schlep features trademark mophie play through functionality and is designed to hold the new iPhone or a 5th generation iPod. Anticipated retail price is $15.00

The Bevy (dreamt by Jared Fiorovich)

The Bevy is a Wraptor case gone wild. Featuring the best of the mophie Wraptor designed for the iPod Shuffle, the Bevy boasts a key chain as well as a built-in bottle opener. The Bevy will be available in March of 2007. Anticipated retail price is $15.00

The mophie Montage (dreamt by Teresa Rivera)

The Montage is a multi-function iPod photo dock. The Montage displays your photos or videos on a touch-screen LCD that also plays your iPod tunes in stereo. Montage also features an alarm clock to wake you up when the party is over. The Montage will fit any iPod (except Shuffle). Retail price and availability to be determined.

The Illuminator Process

Post-keynote on Tuesday, MacWorld attendees handed in their doodles at the mophie booth. Tuesday evening, the votes were tallied and the top three concepts entered the engineering and industrial design phase. Wednesday, roundtables were held at the booth to discuss concepts with show attendees. Input was noted and final concepts and names were voted on mophie.com with the plan to build a prototype of the winning concept.

Thursday, Team mophie transformed the booth into a full-scale model shop with branding and packaging of the winning product. Sales collateral was developed.

On Friday, the products were launched. Due to the cool factor present in all three final products, mophie decided to bring them all to life. MacWorld attendees were introduced to final products in the mophie lounge. Pre-orders are now being accepted.

“The Illuminator process has been incredible,” says Ben Kaufman, mophie Illuminator. “The reality of harnessing the creativity of 40,000+ attendees has been a mind-blowing thought – I’m so stoked I didn’t even have to drink a Red Bull today - this has taken product development to an amazing new level.”

After Editing or Managing over 50 print publications primarily in the role of a Magazine Doctor, Mike embraced the internet full-time in 1995 and became a "start-up all-rounder" – quite a few start-ups later, he founded Gizmag in 2002. Now he can write again. All articles by Mike Hanlon